USS Henry R. Mallory, a 6200 gross ton transport, was built at Newport News, Virginia, in 1916 as a commercial passenger steamship. After the U.S. entered World War I she was employed by the War Department to take troops to France, and in April 1918 she was acquired by the Navy and soon placed in commission. For the remainder of the conflict, Henry R. Mallory continued the vital work of transporting U.S. forces to the war zone. After the 11 November 1918 Armistice, she helped bring veterans of the "Great War" back to the United States. USS Henry R. Mallory was decommissioned in mid-September 1919 and transferred to the War Department about a month later. Later resuming her commercial career, she was again used as a civilian-manned troopship during World War II. SS Henry R. Mallory was torpedoed and sunk in the North Atlantic on 7 February 1943, with heavy loss of life.